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The highly-anticipated Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 kicked off on Friday, November 22 at the Optus Stadium in Perth. The opening match saw Jasprit Bumrah leading the Indian side as Rohit Sharma enjoys paternity leave with his new born. India entered the series on the back of an embarrassing and historic 0-3 loss against New Zealand in the recently-concluded Test series. Hopes are high from the two-time WTC finalists as they aim to whitewash Aussies 4-0 in their own backyard to make their way to third successive WTC final.
The match proved to be one of the rarest occasions when two fast bowlers were leading their respective sides. Things seemed to be in the visitors' favour as stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah won the toss and decided to put the score on the board first. Meanwhile, India handed Test debuts to Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy, whereas Nathan McSweeney played his maiden Test for Baggy Greens. Rana and Reddy were presented their maiden Test caps by icon spinner R Ashwin and talismanic batter Virat Kohli, respectively.
India got off to disastrous start, get reduced to 32/3 within 17 overs
While India seemed to be confident with their intense training sessions and stimulation match, destiny and fate had some other plans. India got off to an unfavourable, rather disastrous start as the visitors lost two wickets within 11 overs into the innings. Yashasvi Jaiswal, the rising batting star was forced to walk back for an eight-ball duck off a Mitchell Starc’s delivery on the first ball of the third over.
Later, on the last ball of the 11th over, Josh Hazlewood’s delivery put an end to Devdutt Padikkal’s run-less stay on the crease after 23 balls. Just when things seemed to get a bit stable, the guests faced another major setback when Virat Kohli was forced to depart after scoring just five runs off 12 balls.
Playing XI of Australia and India
Speaking of the playing XI, India opted to go with Washington Sundar as the lone spinner and left out Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin from the playing XI. On the other hand, Usman Khawaja found his new co-opener in the form of McSweeney, while the rest of the squad featured regular faces like Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood.
India Playing XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Jasprit Bumrah (c), Harshit Rana, Mohammed Siraj
Australia Playing XI: Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood
